The company behind Hugo Boss’ Touch Smartwatch has now confirmed that wearable has been discontinued after launching less than a year ago in August. According to Movado Group, the watch is being “phased out.” There’s no indication as to why the company has chosen to end production on the Wear OS 2.0 device and there are no current plans for a replacement to hit the market in the foreseeable future. In fact, Movado Group did not attend Baselworld 2018 this year, despite that the event is the premier gathering for watch and jewelry makers. The cost to participate in the event was cited as its reason for that decision. In the meantime, the company has also not clarified whether or not software updates will continue for the device.
Hugo Boss’ Touch was announced at Baselworld 2017. At a cost of $395, Touch was designed to look and wear much more like a traditional luxury watch than others on the platform despite its tech-savvy features. It didn’t ship with a heart rate monitor but did feature NFC for mobile tap-based payments through services such as Android Pay. However, it also launched alongside a huge number of other smartwatches, which may have contributed to low sales and other factors. Although speculative, among those was at least one other Movado-produced wearable bearing Tommy-Hilfiger branding. That watch cost nearly $100 less at retail but didn’t offer NFC. It’s been speculated that pricing of its watch may have played a part in the company’s sales figures.
Meanwhile, nearly 300 smartwatches made an appearance at the show, including many made by Fossil. That other company has gone on to have a fair amount of success in the market despite a rocky end to last year, building wearables for itself and several other brands. Beyond that, Movado has faced rivalry from other manufacturers as well thanks to an influx of smartwatch makers from both the fashion and technology categories. With that said, Movado Group is not out of the market by any means. What’s more, the lack of an announcement for a replacement to the now-discontinued Hugo Boss Touch does not necessarily mean that no further Hugo Boss smartwatches are on the way.